Daily news and top headlines for broadband communications engineering and design professionals

South Korean electronics giant Samsung Electronics Co. has started domestic sales of high-end televisions powered by its Tizen operating system and plans to add washing machines, fridges and other appliances to the range of products that use the software. Samsung said sales of Tizen-powered ultra-HD TVs began Thursday in South Korea.

Netflix is expanding into Japan this fall, marking the first time that the Internet video service will be available in Asia. The move announced late Wednesday marks another step toward reaching Netflix's goal to stream video on Internet-connected TVs, phones, tablets and computer throughout the world.

Incognito Software Systems just announced that Quickline AG, the second-largest cable operator in Switzerland, is using Service Activation Center and Auto Configuration Server to accelerate the rollout of new fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) services. These services are being delivered as both new fiber build-outs as well as fiber upgrades for existing customers by Broadband Networks, the reseller of...

Gureck will be responsible for research and development, merger and acquisition activity, concentration on market value and trends, continued development of strategic partnerships, and diversifying the company’s lines of business, the company said.

AT&T and GE said they have collaborated on the development of a smart meter system and a smart lighting solution. The two said the smart meter system is now being tested by customers. The two expect to commercialize the solutions later this year.

Sckipio Technologies said it has successfully trialed G.fast at speeds greater than 500 Mbps for 200 meters, which doubled the official ITU targets for the G.fast standard. Israel-based Sckipio achieved more than 200 Mbps at 400 meters, which also doubled the target distance for the given rate.

According to a recently published report by Dell’Oro Group, the global service provider market is projected to top $11.5 billion in four years. The service provider market includes core and edge routers while the report also examined the enterprise router market.

In the 16th annual Harris Poll Reputation Quotient study that was released today, Charter Communications and Comcast ranked 92nd and 93rd, respectively out of the 100 companies on the list. Given Comcast’s slate of customer service debacles, including the news last week that a customer’s name was changed to “A**hole Brown” on his bill, it’s no surprise to see it near the bottom.

In order to enforce network neutrality, the FCC will propose reclassifying broadband under Title II of the 1934 Communications Act. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler plans to raise network neutrality principles from general tenets to explicit rules, and he intends to include mobile broadband for the first time.

Sony Corp. trimmed its forecast of losses and gave a figure for damages from the Sony Pictures hack, but said it would suffer no significant harm from the cyberattack in the long run. The entertainment and electronics giant delayed the announcement of its earnings for the October-December quarter because the hack affected its ability to compile its complete results in time.

The cable expects its industry-wide $1 billion energy bill to quadruple soon. The SCTE's Energy 2020 project has calculated that between 73 percent and 83 percent of cable’s overall energy consumption is by hubs and headends, and it's determined to reduce that figure.

Suddenlink has added the El Rey Network in some of its markets. El Rey Network is an English-language general entertainment channel founded by filmmaker Robert Rodriguez, and features “From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series” and the Lucha Libre wrestling series “Lucha Underground.”

Time Warner Cable flipped the “on” switch to its $85 million National Data Center West facility near Denver over the weekend. Time Warner Cable first broke ground on expanding the national data center, which is located in the Denver suburb of Centennial, in June, 2013.

General Communications, Inc. (GCI) has wrapped up its $300 million deal for Alaska Communication’s wireless business. The deal, which was announced in December, included Alaska Communications' wireless subscriber base and its 33 percent interest in a partnership between the companies known as The Alaska Wireless Network LLC

The Digital Living Network Alliance (DSLNA) has certified the first wave of products from its members that support its trick mode specifications. The trick mode video specs, which include the support of fast-forward, re-wind and frame-by-frame function, are a mandatory feature of DLNA’s interoperability guidelines.